


i'll explain later

by wordswithdragons



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, POV Amaya (The Dragon Prince), the royal family of katolis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-25
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:11:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26100172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordswithdragons/pseuds/wordswithdragons
Summary: On the eve before the Final Battle, Amaya has some catching up to do with her nephew.
Relationships: Amaya & Callum (The Dragon Prince), Amaya/Janai (The Dragon Prince), Callum/Rayla (The Dragon Prince)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 256





	i'll explain later

**Author's Note:**

> set during & immediately post 3x08. during the elf friend exchange, amaya had signed "she thinks i'm cute, but won't admit it yet" about janai

Amaya barely had time to marvel at seeing a dragon for the first time, never mind that her youngest nephew was _riding_ one. Ezran looked comfortable atop the grand, scaly beast, and although it had only been three weeks since Amaya had last saw him, he looked so much older. So much more sure of himself, and in the sag of his shoulders. He knew what it was to carry weight, now—a burden she never would've wished on anyone, but knew it was inevitable since Harrow fell. Ezran took off on the dragon without a hitch, alongside the mage of the sky nexus. They disappeared against the moon, now almost full the way it had been a month ago and everything, in retrospect, had started changing.

Amaya could remember the two awful weeks the boys went missing, the week and a half she spent as a prisoner in Lux Aurea. The long night _she_ spent flying, holding onto Janai's waist as they managed to think of a plan. _The dark mage's army will have to pass by the Storm Spire, whether to get to the Whispering Isles rich in resources, or to the Sky Nexus itself... We will be waiting for them there_. The last thing she had expected was for her nephews to be here, and with an elf—and Soren, apparently, now having presumably left his father's side.

Now, somewhere, they were all stranded in the middle of the Spire and desperately on the defense, and they needed every ally they could get. Even if one was the elf that had held a sword to her nephews' throats.

_All that stuff at the Banther Lodge was just a big misunderstanding, I'll explain later, but Rayla is our friend._

A little bit more perhaps to Callum, Amaya considered, as she watched the elven girl take his hand like it was the most natural and normal thing in the world for them. Callum held onto hers just as tightly as they stared off into the distance together. Amaya chanced a glance at her own (possibly more than) elf friend beside her, wishing they had been able to bring Kazi along as a translator. For now, Amaya settled for jerking her head in Callum's direction that seemed like enough for Janai to get the message.

"I will fly down to check on my troops," the general said, giving her an out. She clapped Amaya on the shoulder before walking back to her Twin-Tailed Inferno-Tooth Tiger, and Amaya could feel the warmth of Janai's hand even through her shoulder pad, the heat lingering. Her armour, it seemed, was weak to the effect of Sunfire elves—in more ways than one.

Amaya walked up behind her nephew and coughed (she hoped) quietly, not wanting to interrupt but not having any real option otherwise. Callum jumped and then the pair sprang apart, his hand slipping out of Rayla's. "Oh, Aunt Amaya!" he said, smiling nervously and patting the sides of his pants. "What's, uh—what's up?"

"You're my only translator here," she signed. "And there are some things we need to discuss."

"Yeah, uh..." Callum's eyes trailed off to the Sunfire elves waiting below. How both of them had ended up in the middle of Xadia and as friends to former enemies would be a story worth telling on each side, she was sure. He rubbed the back of his neck, his hair a little longer than it had been last time she'd seen him. He carried himself differently now too. "I guess we have some catching up to do," he signed back, speaking at the same time seemingly for Rayla's benefit.

The elf girl nodded, her jaw set. "I can do a Spire perimeter check," she said. "Check for any blind spots we should know about and when the cloud level becomes an issue."

Rayla would make a good soldier, Amaya thought idly as the girl set off up one of the winding mountain staircases, even if she was much too young to be one. It didn't seem like _age_ would matter, come tomorrow. Amaya glanced at Callum and they walked into the closest antechamber, passing Soren on their way. "Tell General Janai we have gone inside, if she asks," Amaya commanded, Callum translating. She didn't want the Sunfire elf to not know where she was if there was an important matter or tactic they needed to discuss. They'd need to put together an actual battle plan soon enough.

The antechamber was a wide and open space with cool blue walls and Callum's hands twisted his satchel strap as they walked before he used them to ask, "Aunt Amaya, I'm still so happy to see you, but what are you doing here in Xadia?"

So Amaya explained, her chin held high. Her insistence on keeping the throne empty and her return to the border. Gren's short explanation that things had not gone to plan in Katolis and that Viren was held for treason. That she hadn't been able to get any details about the boys from her commander, simply because Gren didn't _have_ any. She described her battles at the border and being captured and later trusted by Sunfire elves. How she had tried, and failed, to stop Viren before it was too late. (She spared Callum the details of the Trial of Light and the heat of the fire ring. No need to scare him.) Instead, she focused on Janai's skill and honourable nature, which was almost worryingly easy.

Callum took everything in with raised brows, but he pressed his lips together. "And they really didn't hurt you?" he asked, with that same worried look his mother used to wear.

Amaya ignored the way her right hand still burnt from the phantom fire of Janai's grief. "I am fine," she assured him. "And I am far more concerned about _you_." Her hands lingered on the word before she carried on. "What on earth are you doing here?"

"It's uh..." He rubbed the back of his neck. "It's a long story."

Amaya shot him a look, but the longer she stared at him the more she could see the bags under his eyes. The slightly pinched look under his clothes. It had been an even longer, harder past month for him, likely, in addition to possibly mourning his father. Amaya's heart dropped. Did the boys even know about Harrow? "At least explain the Banther Lodge," she bargained.

"Oh," Callum smiled, his eyes fond, "well that happened because Rayla..." Then he caught himself, his smile faltering. "When the three of us fled the castle, I stole Claudia's primal ball. I wanted to learn more magic. You remember the game room at the Lodge, right?" At Amaya's nod, he continued. "I remembered a cube with symbols on it that I thought may help, so I convinced Rayla to let us go get it. It was supposed to be a quick in-and-out, which is why she went in. And then you showed up and... I didn't think you'd trust us about elves," he admitted. "Or uh, the egg of the Dragon Prince were carrying."

That earned an even longer explanation, Amaya's heart twisting as Callum spoke of the night his father died and all the turmoil that it had included. But once certain pieces came together—Rayla and the egg and the hope that perhaps peace was possible—it at least produced some sort of explanation of _why_ her nephews had ended up here, and a just a smidge of _how_. There was more to the story, though, Amaya could tell, that Callum wasn't divulging. Details of how he'd found out about Harrow and harrowing weeks travelling in the wild, of exactly how Claudia (and Soren) had betrayed them and how they'd found themselves here.

"Oh," Callum perked up, grinning. "And I can do Sky magic now, without a primal stone."

Amaya didn't know much about magic, and although she was fairly certain that 1) that was impossible, and 2) she wasn't sure she wanted to know the likely terrifying details of how that had come about, Callum's face was so round and shining and _happy_ about it she couldn't help but smile. Nor did she know much about sky magic in particular.

But she still reached over and ruffled his hair before signing, "Just don't go flying away too soon." The exact details of that could wait, too. Then she leaned back against the wall on the steps, appreciating the lull in the conversation. This was the closest thing to pleasant downtime she'd had in weeks (sitting in a very hot prison didn't count) although there was one more thing she had to know before she put it to rest. "So... your elf friend, Rayla?"

Callum smiled and rubbed the back of his neck, his cheeks turning a shade lighter than his scarf. "Oh. Yeah."

Amaya had never been one to beat around the bush, though. "You two are a couple?"

His smile grew. "Yeah. It's still recent," he explained, "and I know it's not what you ever expected for me," he acknowledged, to which she responded with a nod. "But..." A sort of soft light entered his eyes. "I really love her, Aunt Amaya."

At that, his aunt's eyes widened, and her breath turned short. She had expected some kind of crush, maybe a tentative relationship. Not... "Love?"

He nodded and signed at the same time. He'd never seemed so _sure_ about anything, a far cry from the less than confident boy Amaya had seen at the Lodge a month ago. "Yes," he reiterated. "I haven't told her yet, but I want to."

A million reservations rose in Amaya's throat. The fact that her nephew's girlfriend was an _elven_ assassin who could've had a hand in Harrow's death, that they were young and rushing into things, that his feelings could be stronger than Rayla's... But Callum seemed at peace, too, and however he'd made peace with Rayla's past was between them, and was it fair to judge a girl she'd only known for a few minutes? Especially when there was so little time left.

And, perhaps most fo all, Amaya reminded herself memories of her own time in Lux Aurea and flying to the Spire, and the woman who had made everything bearable, who was waiting for her down below to discuss battle plans.

The world was on the brink of changing times ( _again_ ) and Amaya knew well how much that changed the people who inhabited it. Why couldn't Callum fall for an elf? And why shouldn't she, possibly, do the same?

She laid a hand briefly on her nephew's shoulder. "Then I hope it goes well," she signed, smiling.

Callum beamed back at her. "So... what about _your_ elf friend?" he asked finally. "She seems cool, and nice." And then a mischievous twinkle entered his eyes paired with an equally amused smile. The expression was so similar to Sarai's when they would have girl talk as teenagers it made Amaya's breath halt in her throat, just for a moment. "Has she admitted you're cute yet?"

"Not yet," Amaya affirmed, catching herself and chuckling. "But maybe tomorrow."

Callum's eyes flickered to the entrance of the antechamber and the full moon in the distance. She wondered if he was thinking of the battle to come, or of Rayla and Ezran. "I'm really glad we found each other again, Aunt Amaya," he said, turning his attention back to her. "If tomorrow is the end."

Amaya hugged him tightly. Him and Ezran were too young to have already lost this much. "It won't be," she signed, pulling away. That was a promise.

He smiled a little. "Good," he said. "We do both have a great deal more to explain, after all."

Amaya's eyes crinkled. "Fair enough" she agreed. "But next time, you go first."


End file.
